Oka
Takasumi (1890-1973)

Oka Takasumi (Oka Takazumi) graduated from the
Naval
Academy in 1911 and
the Naval Staff College in 1923. He was a submariner but
held numerous staff
assignments between the wars. He was a vice admiral and
political and
military specialist in the Navy
Ministry and directed the Bureau of Naval Affairs in the period just
before the Pacific war broke out. This was a powerful position, since
any government agency dealing with the Navy had to go through the
Bureau of Naval Affairs, making Oka one of the three most influential staff officers (bakuryu) in Japan.

Oka was opposed to the Tripartite
Pact and supported a Japanese
withdrawal from China to placate the
Americans, and opposed an
immediate decision to go to war in August 1941; but he apparently
also
told the Army General Staff that the Navy preferred an attack on the Netherlands
East Indies
to an attack on Russia.
He
joined Nagano
and Shimada
in insisting that diplomacy be
sacrificed in order to win the impending
war.

Oka was unmarried, pro-German, and generally a supporter of
Army policies. He was unsuccessful in gaining Army support for attacks
on the key Allied bases in Hawaii and Australia, but did negotiate Army
support for the Port Moresby
operation that led to the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Service record

1890-2-11

born

1911-7-18

Midshipman

Graduates from Naval Academy, standing
52nd in a clas of 148. Assigned to CL Soya